Prophecy: Child of Light (3 page)

He could keep her to himself.

He shook his head to rid it of such a ridiculous notion. His allegiance was to his house, to the family of Aurorea, not to a female vampire of the house of Caelestis. Besides, if he didn’t tell him now, Kalinor would have him executed when he eventually found out about her and discovered that he’d known of her existence all along.

But what he’d seen in her blood. It couldn’t be a lie. No vampire on earth had the power to make their blood lie. It was truth, and he had seen it with his own eyes and felt it in his heart. To tell his lord of her existence was to sentence her to death and that would have terrible repercussions.

He stared at the window, watching the rain streaking down it while he pulled himself together and reminded himself that he’d served this house loyally for over two centuries. Now wasn’t the time to be disloyal, not when he’d worked so hard to get where he was. Not when he was so close.

“You seem troubled.”

He heard Kalinor stand and he looked at him out of the corner of his eye. His lord looked worried. He was drawing too much attention to himself. He had to tell him now before he grew angry.

“You did not succeed tonight in finding the hunter that plagues our city, but that does not mean you will not prevail. You will defeat him. I’m as certain of that as I am of you becoming the Law Keeper for Aurorea one day.”

Valentine closed his eyes as he felt those words plunge into his chest, twisting there like a knife. He would be a Law Keeper one day, if only he could find his voice and confess to his lord what he’d found tonight and why he smelt of their enemy.

He took a deep breath and felt tranquillity fill him.

“The prophecy,” he said the words slowly and looked directly at his lord.

Kalinor’s eyes widened, his jaw tensing while he waited to hear what he had to say.

Valentine began to pace, not wanting to see his lord’s eyes when he told him about her. He could feel Kalinor’s gaze following his every move, could sense the anticipation as it hung in the air between them. His lord would know that this was the reason he’d seemed so distracted and agitated tonight. He could no longer go back and keep her to himself. He had to go forwards and do his duty.

“Go on.” Kalinor encouraged him.

Valentine sighed.

“I had no luck in hunting the man responsible for taking two of our best. I ran into something else... something...” He closed his eyes briefly and replayed the image of her lost in the taste of blood and the thrill of the hunt. Opening his eyes, he looked at the floor and frowned. “Enthralling.”

“Enthralling?” Kalinor moved towards him, but Valentine moved away, going to the window and staring out of it at the darkness.

He watched the rain sweeping across the garden and clasped his hands behind his back.

“She exists,” he said and waited.

It wouldn’t take his lord long to piece together what he was saying. He would know that the blood he could smell on him would have something to do with it. He didn’t resist when Kalinor caught hold of his shoulders and turned him to face him. His lord’s eyes came to rest on the small spot of red that was still marring his lips.

“She’s one of them?” Kalinor said.

Valentine nodded in confirmation.

“I found her hunting, alone. She appeared to be executing her first kill. They have kept her hidden well... only she did not wish to remain that way.” He looked deep into his lord’s eyes and searched them for an answer to his next question. “Is she dangerous?”

Kalinor smiled.

It was true then. Valentine remembered what he’d been told as a youngling, what all vampires were told. In the future, a dark day would dawn and with it would come the end of their existence, all at the hands of one of their own. The one he had met tonight was the child of the prophecy. She was going to destroy their kind.

 Kalinor walked towards the door and stopped with his hand on the handle.

“For now, this goes no further than the elders. As an envoy, I will visit the house of Caelestis. You will be there at my side to recount what you witnessed tonight and we will see what they have been hiding from us.” Kalinor looked back at him and gave him a grim smile. “Then you will have the proud honour of destroying the abomination.”

Valentine’s stomach dropped when he heard those words. They had been spoken with a smile that said what a true honour it would be to be known as the vampire who had stopped the prophecy from coming true. He stared at the door his lord had walked out of and felt empty inside.

He would be responsible for destroying the abomination?

What honour was there in murdering her? He couldn’t see any, not as his lord could.

He shuddered inwardly at the thought of killing her.

He didn’t want to be the one responsible for her death, didn’t want to take eternity away from her. There was nothing honourable about what Kalinor had asked him to do.

He could hear Kalinor shouting commands to the house elders when he walked back into the main reception room and stared blankly at the floor.

He should have listened to her blood. He shouldn’t have tried to ignore the vision it had given him. Raising his head, he spotted the blond mess of hair that belonged to Cornelius through the heads of the elders and headed directly for him.

He caught him by the arm and started up the stairs with him. “Come with me. I need your assistance.”

* * * *

P
rophecy was soaked to the skin by the time she had made it over the high wall surrounding the grounds and back to the house. Scaling the drainpipe again, she pushed the sash window up and slipped back into her room. She clawed her wet hair out of her face, closed the window as quietly as possible and then let out a sigh of relief.

She was so stupid.

She should have listened to her mother when she’d told her that she wasn’t strong enough to hunt. The other vampire had been so much more powerful than her. She hadn’t been able to stop him from biting her and she didn’t know what to make of his reaction. At the time, she’d just seen it as an opportunity to escape, but as she’d made her way home, she’d begun to think about it. He’d been stunned by what he’d seen, and she couldn’t fathom why.

It wasn’t as if she’d led a long or interesting life. She had spent over twenty years trapped in the same house. What was interesting about that?

At least she was back safe now, and no one had to know that she had been gone. She would change her clothes, dry her hair and then go down to see her mother. No one had to know.

She froze when she heard a noise in the darkness and realised that she wasn’t alone.

“Brother,” she greeted him coldly when he stepped out of the shadows by the door and moved towards her.

Turning away from him, she carefully covered the marks on her neck and stared out of the window, waiting for him to speak.

“Prophecy,” Arkalus said softly and came to stand behind her. He moved to touch her shoulder but she stepped forwards and evaded his fingers. She saw his hand drop to his side out of the corner of her eye. How long had he been waiting for her to return? She’d been gone for hours. “Where have you been?”

She bit her tongue and continued to stare out of the window.

She could feel his eyes as they raked over her wet hair down to the smooth skin of her exposed shoulders.

“One day, you won’t be able to turn me away so easily.”

She frowned at his words, a thinly veiled threat that he emphasised by brushing his fingers lightly over her shoulder. Her jaw set tight and she turned her head away from him, disgusted by his attentions and wanting nothing more than to be alone.

Unable to hold her feelings inside, she found her mouth moving before she could stop it. “You’ll be waiting a long time.”

Her words had no impact. It was as though she’d never spoken them. His fingers moved to play with her hair, his tone becoming so intimate a whisper that it made her stomach squirm.

“What makes you think I won’t tell mother about your disappearance tonight?” He leaned in a little closer to her and her whole body tensed.

She tried to make light of it, hoping that he’d leave her alone and find someone else to bestow his attentions upon. “If you did that, mother would want to know why you didn’t tell her earlier... why wait so long? You’d be in as much trouble as me.”

He seemingly ignored her comment and stroked his fingers gently over her shoulder. She shuddered when he pressed a light kiss to it, the tendrils of his long brown hair grazing her skin. It brought the stranger back into her head. She remembered the way his lips had grazed her neck. An echo of the feelings he’d ignited then danced through her.

“You won’t be able to turn me away forever. I’m a patient man...” Arkalus whispered it into her ear. She leaned away from him, trying to escape his touch. “As soon as mother passes the house to me, I’ll take you as my mate and you won’t be able to stop me.”

She closed her eyes when the air shifted around her and then the door slammed. She let out the breath she’d been holding and slumped into her chair, thinking about what he’d said.

It was no secret that he wanted her as his own. The whole house knew. He’d been courting her for as long as she could remember, but she had never once shown any interest in him. Recently he’d taken to threatening her, and the more he did the more she wanted to lash out at him. She wished he would go back to how he used to be, acting like a brother to her rather than attempting to be a lover. She wished her continual rebuffs would show him that she didn’t want anything to do with him in that way, but they only seemed to drive him on.

So long as their mother, Iona, was walking the earth there was nothing he could do without her consent, but Prophecy knew that one day she would be gone and then it would be her duty to do as the head of the household commanded.

The idea of being Arkalus’ bride made her sick to her stomach, but she wouldn’t be able to stop him if Iona was out of the equation.

Something told Prophecy that regardless of what he’d said, Arkalus was growing ever more impatient. If she didn’t agree to his terms soon then there was a chance that he would take the death of Iona into his own hands in order to ensure that she was his.

Changing out of her wet clothes, she slipped into a long black satin dress and lay down on her bed. She closed her eyes and pushed away from the thought of being claimed by Arkalus, and returned to her previous ones.

Who was the vampire she’d met tonight? Was he one of the Aurorea responsible for the death of one of her house or was he something else? He’d been alone, just like she had, not hunting with the pack like most vampires did. The way he’d looked at her after tasting her blood seemed like an image frozen in her mind. It haunted her.

He’d looked stunned, shocked by the visions he’d received from her blood, and it made her shudder to think of what he’d seen to make him look like that.

She’d suspected for some time now that she wasn’t like the other vampires of her house. They all spoke about her behind her back. Serenity had told her that much. Prophecy had caught fearful looks in their eyes sometimes and now a vampire from the other house was looking at her in exactly the same way.

Curling up on the bed, she emptied her mind of all thoughts until there was only him.

His dark hair, his green eyes, and the way he looked at her as though he could see straight through her, down into her heart.

There was something about him that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, but one thing she knew she could be sure of.

This wouldn’t be the last time she saw him.

V
alentine glanced across at Kalinor as they turned down the long cobbled avenue that led to the Caelestis mansion. His lord had insisted they walked from this point, leaving the cars behind in the street. It was a show of force. Driving right to the gates would have stolen any chance of scaring the Caelestis guards. By walking, they had given the guards time to see their approach and start to panic.

Valentine tried to ignore the feeling of apprehension that filled him, threatening to consume him when he looked at the high wall to his left. He could almost feel her on the other side, could almost picture her face when the time came to do the dreadful deed that he was here to commit. His lord wouldn’t need him by his side if he were only coming to discuss the matter of a Caelestis being the child of the prophecy. Kalinor could have easily laid the accusation at their master’s feet and got the answers that he wanted. There was only one reason for bringing himself along.

Kalinor wanted him to murder her tonight.

Valentine’s stomach turned when he looked up to see one of the wings of the dark grey mansion towering above him. The sight of it filled him with cold dread. He couldn’t believe what he was going to do.

His eyes scanned along the windows. Was one of them hers? Did she have any idea what was coming to visit her house tonight? Did she know what cruel fate awaited her?

He dropped back from the group, letting the six guardsmen pass him while he stared up at one window.

He could feel her.

His eyelids became heavy as her blood called to him, making his senses drowsy as the scent of it enveloped him.

“Valentine?”

His eyes shot open when he heard his lord’s voice and he found the whole group had stopped to look at him. He shook his head to clear it of her and focused on Kalinor.

“Is something wrong?” Kalinor gave Valentine a questioning look that made him feel as though his lord could see right through his calm façade to the turbulent emotions hidden underneath.

“I...” Valentine stumbled on the words. His eyes drifted back to the mansion and the window but he forced them to the opposite side of the street where dense trees and bushes covered a slope. “I thought I sensed something.”

He could see that Kalinor was waiting for more explanation.

“I wish... grant me leave to see what it was that I felt, to ensure your safety. It is possible the hunter may have tracked us.” He held his lord’s gaze and stood in silence, waiting. He was pushing his luck. In all his life as a hunter, he had never appeared so shaken to his lord as he had done tonight, and now he was bowing out of an important mission, one that his lord had placed great honour in him receiving.